Romney in 2006: By law, emergency care cannot be withheld. Why pay for something you can get free? Of course, while it maybe free for them, everyone else ends up paying the bill, either in higher insurance premiums or taxes.
Romney on 60 Minutes a few days ago: If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.
Romney seems to have experienced a dramatic change of heart regarding the cost-effectiveness of emergency rooms as primary care centers. Back in the Aughts, he made a sensible case for ensuring that people had other options for accessing medical care besides the ER. Now, he seems to be implying that going to the ER is better than nothing.
The 2006 version of Romney would probably be a much more formidable opponent than the current model.
